The FBI appears to have crossed a very dangerous line. In their understandable zeal to take down violent neo-nazis and other criminals on the radical right, they appear to have used a well known NJ talk show host who was among the very worst at inciting violence. Here is some of the dirt via HateWatch (emphasis mine):

Turner, 45, has developed a reputation as one of the hardest-line racists on the radical right since starting up his radio show seven years ago. He has routinely ranted about such things as a “Portable Nigger Lyncher” machine and slimed those he hates as “savage Negro beasts,” “bull-dyke lesbians,” “faggots” and worse.

But it is his threats that are legendary.

In 2006, Turner told his audience to “clean your guns, have plenty of ammunition … [and] then do what has to be done” to undocumented workers. Around the same time, he suggested that half the U.S. Congress “may have to be assassinated.” A year earlier, he suggested “drawing up lists of yeshivas,” or Jewish religious schools. He once started a website called http://www.killtheenemy.com for the purpose of posting photos and names of those who marched in favor of immigrant rights. Hearing that anti-racist activist Floyd Cochran was visiting Newark, N.J., last June, Turner said he had “arranged for a group of guys to physically intercept” Cochran and added that Cochran would likely “get such a beating that his next stop is going to be University Hospital.” In a July letter, Turner wrote to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which publishes the Intelligence Report: “If you do not change your stance soon, you will face a wrath of fury that you will never be able to defend yourself against. We have the ability to reach out and touch someone.”

This is a man who has advocated murder in broad daylight. If the FBI has indeed been using him, then we should all pay close attention to the alarms it is setting off (emphasis mine):

The apparent revelation set off a torrent of criticism from experts in criminology and the use of informants. “This is clearly over the line,” said James Nolan, an associate sociology professor at West Virginia University who is an expert in police procedure and a former unit chief in the FBI’s Crime Analysis, Research and Development Unit. “Informants may be involved in drugs, and you overlook that because of the greater good. However, these are viable threats — they could be carried out — that the FBI clearly knows about. I want to see the FBI stop it.”

Informants, of course, are commonly used by law enforcement agencies that have no other way of proving suspected criminal activity. “These are frightening groups whose members deserve to be investigated and infiltrated,” said Jack Levin, a criminology professor and expert on the radical right at Northeastern University. “My concern is that Turner’s methods actually are more dangerous and destructive than the evil they are seeking to cure. His threatening messages may actually inspire neo-Nazis to up the ante, to engage in even more destructive behavior.”

If this is true, then I hope at the very least investigations come out of this. The following quote by Hal Turner perfectly sums up the destructive rhetoric of the extremist radical right:

Turner described himself as the type to inspire “a whole slew of potential Timothy McVeighs. I don’t make bombs,” he added, “I make bombers.”

It is this rhetoric that we see seeping into the campaigns and talk shows of the mainstream right.

There is a positive point. Turner is quitting:

On Thursday, as the E-mail exchange was heatedly discussed on a major neo-Nazi website, Turner suddenly announced he was quitting political work. “I hereby separate from the ‘pro-White’ movement,” he said, adding that he was ending his radio show immediately. “I will no longer involve myself in any aspect of it.”